The 1923 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1923 college football season. The 1923 season was Fielding H. Yost's 23rd as the head football coach at Michigan. For the second straight year, Michigan compiled an undefeated record and tied for the Big Ten Conference football championship. The team won all eight of its games by a combined score of 150–12 and has been recognized as national champions by the Billingsley Report and the National Championship Foundation. The only Michigan player selected as a consensus first-team All-American was center Jack Blott.
On defense, the 1923 team gave up an average of 1.6 points per game, held its first four opponents scoreless, and gave up only one touchdown during the entire season. Left tackle Stanley Muirhead was one of the team's leaders on defense and became known for his fierce tackles. Muirhead played in every minute of Michigan's games in 1923.
On offense, Michigan was led by a backfield that included halfbacks Harry Kipke and Herb Steger and quarterback Irwin Uteritz. Steger was the team's leading scorer, while Kipke developed a reputation as the best punter in college football during the 1923 season. When Uteritz was injured in a game against the Quantico Marines, he was replaced at quarterback by Ferdinand Rockwell. Rockwell ran for a touchdown in his first play against the Marines and also scored Michigan's only touchdowns in the final two games of the season against Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Highlights of the 1923 season included a 19–0 victory over Ohio State with the largest crowd in Ferry Field history in attendance. The season was also marked by two close games involving controversial calls. Against Iowa, a controversial call that a Michigan punt grazed a Hawkeye lineman resulted in Michigan's winning touchdown. Against Wisconsin, a controversial call that Rockwell had not been tackled to the ground on a long kick return again resulted in Michigan's winning touchdown. The Wisconsin game also featured a game-saving "diving shoe-string tackle" by Edliff Slaughter on the last play of the game – a play that Fielding Yost later called "the greatest play in football I ever saw." In the final game of the season, Michigan shut out an undefeated Minnesota team that had scored 34 points against Northwestern and 20 against Iowa in the preceding weeks.
Read more about 1923 Michigan Wolverines Football Team: Schedule, Awards and Honors, Coaching Staff
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